How about this

[Mika Joon]

it looks very interesting

does this mean that Resolve for mac can run more powerfully with this device?

[Kris Anderson]

Interesting.

How does it connect to the host CPU, say, a Mac Pro, and still give you the extra PCIe lanes? If this works I can see one of these in my suite with a Red Rocket card and a few other bits and pieces. As it is, my Mac Pro is maxed out with a fiber card for the Unity, Avid DX card and local storage RAID card.

If this is cost effective and works as it says then it’s a godsend, especially for Mac owners.

Can anyone offer any more info?

[Greg Leuenberger]

I wouldn’t get too excited yet. Even if you could connect additional cards – unless there’s OS X drivers for Fermi based GForces or Teslas your Mac isn’t going to see them. The site doesn’t really explain how this works – I don’t think you’re connecting the cards directly to the machine so much as they are acting like a remote render station accessed via ethernet (hard to tell from the website). There’s other solutions for this.

I’m not sure BM will be all too enthused to support something like this either – since it’s similar to how their 100K+ Linux version works (via infiniband).

I’m also not sure why they’re advertising for a $99 rendering product that just got out of alpha phase and is nowhere close to production ready – sounds like they’re desperately searching for a market.

NVidia has rackmount GPU (Tesla based) render stations – they are great for HPC or rendering work where you are dealing with a frame at a time. I’m not sure you you can possible get real-time performance from color grading with a remote renderer unless you have a high-bandwidth connection like infiniband though.

I think we’d all be happy with Fermi support in an OS X update.

-Greg

Greg Leuenberger
CEO
Sabertooth Productions, Inc.
http://www.sabpro.com

[Margus Voll]

Hi.

I think in linux you could combine different computers. With pcie etc expanders you could get som more gpu’s possibly but machines internal data band with will be limiting factor here.

Lets say you have 3 gpu’s and array etc connected one machine and in one point it all slows down dramatically as internal bus is full. This is where 100 k linux comes in with lets say 8 streams of 2k.

But this is just my guess.

—

Margus

https://iconstudios.eu

[Jack Jones]

Would be interesting to try it out once the new era of DaVinci begins.

The models on the site are clearly for two different pieces of software, ‘Octane Render’ and and of the ‘Accelware’ programs. The laptop version also looks to be for ‘Octane Render.’

Therefore I’m guessing that compatibility is only with those specific bits of software. Would be nice to think otherwise but lets be a little realistic in thinking nothing comes for free!

[Eric Fiegehen]

Cubix GPU-Xpander will run the Red Rocket, any CUDA-enabled GPU from NVIDIA, AJA Kona, etc.,. It is a pure hardware solution, so it does not rely upon any drivers other than those that come with the 3rd party adapter you’re running in the box.

The reason it looks right now like it’s specific to only a couple of different software solutions is because these are the first partnerships formed for this particular product line. Also, the website is only 1/2 – 2/3 complete (should be 100% by end of the week, first part next week) along with a shopping cart site.

As new partnerships are formed, more hardware and software are tested, qualified, and certified, you will see more website content specific to additional products and vendors. Realistically, it runs anything that will load on to a PCIe adapter.

While the argument regarding bus traffic is certainly valid for some applications, Cubix has found that other applications from vendors such as Acceleware and Refractive software (Octane Render) execute mainly on the GPUs, not on the CPUs. Therefore, PCIe bus traffic is minimal and does not impact performance in most cases.

If the Davinci application in question executes mainly on the GPUs, then GPU-Xpander Pro 2 may just be what you’re looking for. Applications such as the new Adobe CS5 have applications and processes which alternate between CPU/system memory-intensive and GPU-intensive. Adobe’s Mercury Playback Engine would be a perfect fit for GPU-Xpander for ExpressCard 34 with an Adobe-certified GPU acceleration card loaded plus dedicated OpenGL 2.0+ for connection to monitors, and would certainly enhance performance for any laptop or MacBook Pro with ExpressCard 34/54 connector. Not so much for other applications or processes, but then again Cubix is not claiming to be a perfect solution for every DI or NLE application out there.

Anyhow, please feel free to contact me directly with any technical or sales-related questions you have while waiting for website completion.

Best Regards,
Eric Fiegehen
Director, Visual & GPU Compute Solutions
Cubix Corporation
ericc@cubix.com
sales@cubixgpu.com

[Eric Fiegehen]

Forgot to mention that GPU-Xpander Pro 2 ships standard with a PCIe x8 adapter, or optional ExpressCard 34 connection (by industry specification, PCIe x 1). If there’s a strong enough demand by DaVinci users, as well as other markets which Cubix has targeted with this product, we’ll build a x16 adapter version.

Keep in mind, however, one of the factors in the decision to develop this product line was the demand we saw for an entry-level, ‘Quadroplex Lite’ solution aimed at the sub $7k market. A x16 option drives the price up considerably.

[Ergin Kuke]

Thanks for chiming in Eric. Looking forward to what you might come up with. I could kill two birds with one stone here,..Davinci and Octane

[Mika Joon]

“” Thanks for chiming in Eric. Looking forward to what you might come up with. I could kill two birds with one stone here,..Davinci and Octane”””

I absolutely agree, if Davinci Resolve could work with this, it would make it a powerful system, I would get one in a heart beat. two GTX 285 cards working in unison driving Resolve…….we are talking realtime playback and numerous FX’s, and faster rendering, a much faster way of working.

I’ve been thinking of upgrading my early 2008 3.0ghz macpro for the new 12 cores coming in July or so, but I would rather go the Octane route if it is an obtainable solution, no need for new computer as the site mentions.

fingers crossed

[Simon Blackledge]

But aren’t you limited in the bandwidth the expander card goes into ?